Gurgoan, Nov 01:After A series of deliberations with the local administration, the concessionaires of Rs 500-crore Express Highway project, Jaypee-DSC, have ultimately agreed to provide service lanes along the existing highway.

This would help maintain normal flow of traffic. The issue of diverting the highway traffic to city roads during the construction of the Express Highway thus seems to have been resolved.
Earlier, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and the concessionaires were bent upon diverting the Highway traffic through inside roads of the city, and had refused to provide service lanes. Now, there would be no more closure of the Rajiv-IFFCO Chowk patch as the traffic would be put on to the service lanes, NHAI has said.
The NHAI and the concessionaires, Jaypee-DSC had earlier refused to construct service lanes along the highway and asked the local administration to allow them to close the Rajiv-IFFCO Chowk patch on National Highway 8 for two years. It had suggested that the traffic coming from Delhi side would be diverted to the road passing in front of Leisure Valley Park from IFFCO Chowk. The traffic coming from Jaipur side was to be diverted to the Old Delhi road passing in front of the Maruti Udyog factory.
NHAI and Jaypee-DSC officials met the Deputy Commissioner and head of the transport department of Haryana Government and the former agreed to construct service lanes along the highway, doing away with the problem of closing the Rajiv-IFFCO Chowk patch. According to the project director, NHAI, B R Salwan, the traffic would now be put on to the service lanes without diverting the traffic to the inside lanes of the city.
According to the layout plan of the Express Highway, the concessionaires were supposed to construct service lanes within a distance of 60 metre from the highway. However, they tried to pursue the local administration for an alternative route, thus avoiding constructing service lanes.
The NHAI has also expressed dissatisfaction over the slow pace of work in Express Highway projects.